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Today at 21:57
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, "Because I bore him with pain."
Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed and ENLARGE MY BORDER, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!" And God granted him what he requested. (I Chronicles 4:9-10)
Bruce Wilkinson made this passage in I Chronicles popular a few years ago with his best selling book, Jabez. In the book he pointed out how this man Jabez asked God for three things. He then takes us through the details which resulted in God granting Jabez what He requested of Him.
God has been speaking to me lately about the natural “bent” I have in limiting Him. I don’t want to, but I do it anyway! And I don’t think I am alone either.
“And going a little farther, He threw Himself upon the ground on His face and prayed saying, “My Father, if it is possible, LET THIS CUP PASS AWAY from Me; nevertheless, not what I will [not what I desire], but as You will and desire.” (Mathew 26:39 AMP)
These two passages are very similar because, in each instance, the request is being made to see the UNLIMITED GOD EXPAND their borders, and move beyond the limitations of what they could both see!
In the case of Jabez, whose name means “sorrowful.” How would you like to go through life with a name like Sorrowful? No thank you. In a teaching I heard by Chuck Swindoll in the late 80’s, he expounded on the meaning of Jabez. He said Jabez meant “born with pain”, which is different than “born in pain.” With pain has to do with the circumstances he was born into, while “in pain” would seem to be more of an indication of what was happening during the actual birth of Jabez, such as the pain his mother endured during childbirth.
Based on the boldness of his prayer, and the ensuing result, I think we have to assume the first line of thought was true! Jabez was indeed thrust into a life of painful circumstances! Not only did he experience “pain” at a young age, but we also have to believe painful circumstances were a regular part of his life, especially for him to be at the maturity level he was in having not only prayed, but had awswered, that powerful prayer! And in examining his prayer, the one thing that “reaches in and grabs me”, was his desire to see God expand his borders (limitations).
“Oh that you would bless me, not just bless me, but bless me INDEED! That you would keep me from ALL evil! That you would expand the borders (of all of my earthly limitations)!”
In the Garden of Gesthemane, Jesus prayed in the same way! “If it is possible, let this CUP (of limitations) PASS AWAY! (Mathew 26:39)
Father, let me be as you are, without borders or limits………..SO THAT………they (us) can ALL be filled to the fullness as well, and our John 17 prayer can be fulfilled! Let me be as I have been since the beginning, with you Father, in the UNLIMITED EXPANSE OF THE UNLIMITED UNIVERSE!
“Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” (John 17:5)
“THAT ALL OF THEM MAY BE ONE, Father, JUST AS (present tense) YOU ARE IN ME and I AM IN YOU. MAY THEY ALSO BE IN US……SO THAT……..the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21)
“AS HE IS (without limitations), SO ARE WE (without limitations) IN THIS WORLD! (I John 4:17)
I am convinced God is grieved by our unwillingness, or perhapswe could even call it ignorance or indifference, of seeing Him as the UNLIMITED ONE! We have the entire expanse of the universe at our disposal IN US, and yet many of us haven’t moved beyond Christianity 101, Jesus FOR ME! God is the EVER EXPANDING God, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way! You don’t put NEW WINE (The Unlimited Revelation of Christ in US) into old wine skins (the life bound by earthly limitations). New Wine is EVER EXPANDING, and the old wine skins (still steeped in the elementary school of God) have to burst! There has to be an EVER EXPANDING Christ in Us because He is the God of No limitations!
In the garden Jesus sweat great drops of blood!
“Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his SWEAT WAS AS IT WERE, GREAT DROPS OF BLOOD!” (Luke 22:42-44)
Let’s look closely at this series of events. He had just come from being with HIS disciples in the upper room where He also just finished initiating the NEW COVENANT IN HIS BLOOD! And now we see Him in the Garden of Gethsemane asking His Father to “let this Cup Pass Away?"
We have been taught this passage is in reference to the cup of suffering he was about to endure through the cross, and I am not disputing that at all! But is it also possible there was a dual purpose in His Gethsemane experience? Is it possible that in this passage He is asking the Father to remove (pass away) HIS CUP of Earthly LIMITATIONS? After having been clothed in flesh for 33 years, is it possible He is longing to shed the limitations (The Cup) of being human? Is it possible the great drops of blood he shed were a picture of the parable of the New WINE (The New Covenant IN HIS BLOOD) bursting forth from the OLD Wineskin of His flesh? Could the reference to “THIS CUP” be a reference to Himself as being THE CONTAINER of His Father? Could this experience in the garden be the result of His Covenant prayer to His Father in John 17?
Why would He be longing for this shedding of HIS CUP, and what’s more, why was HIS SOUL be grieved to the point of death?
There can only be ONE ANSWER!
It was ALL FOR US! It was His prayer that our ONENESS with Him and His Father would vex (Him) His soul to the point of knowing as long as He was clothed in Flesh, the Spirit was LIMITED in the scope of His work!
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; IT IS EXPEDIENT FOR YOU THAT I GO AWAY: for IF I NOT GO AWAY, the COMFORTER WILL NOT COME UNTO YOU; BUT IF I DEPART, I WILL SEND HIM UNTO YOU. And when HE IS COME, He will reprove the world of sin (separation), and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin (separation), because they BELIEVE NOT ON ME; Of righteousness, BECAUSE I GO TO MY FATHER, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world IS JUDGED. I have yet many things to say unto you, but YE CANNOT BEAR THEM NOW. Howbeit when HE, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, IS COME, HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH: for HE SHALL NOT SPEAK OF HIMSELF; BUT……..WHATSOEVER HE SHALL HEAR, THAT SHALL HE SPEAK: and HE WILL SHOW YOU THINGS TO COME. HE SHALL GLORIFY ME: FOR HE SHALL RECEIVE OF MINE, AND SHALL SHOW IT UNTO YOU. ALL THINGS that the Father hath ARE MINE: therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. (Luke 16:7-15)
"All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained." (Philippians 3:15-16)
Do you see the urgency in this passage in LUKE, because He knew the ONLY way “we could see as He sees” is to be filled with the Same Spirit, The UNLIMITED SPIRIT OF POWER, the SPIRIT that raised Christ from the DEAD!
God is Grieved in His heart when His Unlimited Spirit is limited by us not seeing as He does. He is grieved because He knows that the Unlimited Life we all desire is only obtained by seeing God in ALL things, people, places, circumstances, situations, attitudes, etc. It is agreeing with Him as seeing our old wineskins of human limitations as Passing Away!
“Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and LIMITED THE HOLY ONE of ISRAEL. They remembered NOT HIS HAND, NOR THE DAY when He delivered them from the enemy.” (Psalm 78:41-42)
“But my righteous ONE shall live by faith, AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.” (Hebrews 10:38)
The Spirit is the Ultimate DOER, THE WORKER, THE ONE who brings substance to the Spoken Word! When we hold onto the things of this life He is limited in the willing and doing of His good pleasure IN US!
Suffering is the vehicle God uses to bring us beyond ourselves! Painful circumstances are meant to cause us to look to Him as the God of The Impossible! To live is Christ, and to die is gain! Death is God’s chosen method of bringing TRUE LIFE! But what is death from God’s perspective? Death is nothing more than believing the illusion that we can be separated from God!
“I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; IT NEVER BECOMES MORE but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces MANY OTHERS and yields a rich harvest.” (John 12:24 AMP)
God will roll in death on everything we continue to hold onto and call life! DEATH MUST HAVE IT’S FULL WORK IN US……so that….we can move beyond the earthly limitations that keep us grounded in fear, and like Jabez, see God as a God without borders or limitations……IN US!
The reason everything concerning us has to die is the same reason Christ died, FOR OTHERS! All of Life comes out of death, and we can have death come to us in its many forms and expressions, but its one purpose is always the same, to cause us to see HIS UNLIMITED LIFE IN US IS ALWAYS FOR OTHERS!
In 1983, a dear brother in Christ prescribed a prayer for me. He said to me Rich, if you want EVERYTHING God has for you in this life, than pray this prayer; “Lord, bring me to the end of myself, and give me a revelation of WHO I AM IN CHRIST, and WHO CHRIST IS IN ME!” I prayed that prayer for three years, God answered it for the next 20! And no matter what the trial or how hard the circumstance, I would continue to pray. I prayed it until my wife and kids hated it, because they lived in the answer of it every day! And why am I saying this. What does this have to do with RELEASING THE LIMITATIONS? In order for us to walk in that place of seeing HIM as the Unlimited God, God will ask every one us for one thing and only one thing…………EVERY-THING!
“And I sought a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the Land (of no limitations), that I should not destroy it, BUT I HAVE FOUND NONE. Therefore have I poured out My indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; THEIR OWN WAY HAVE I REPAID [by bringing it] UPON THEIR OWN HEADS, SAYS THE LORD GOD.” (Ezekiel 22;30)
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "WHOM SHALL I SEND (into this unlimited land)? AND WHO WILL GO FOR US?"
AND I SAID, HERE I AM SEND ME!”
He said, "Go and tell this people: " 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." (Isaiah 6:8-10)
God MUST have someone that sees as He sees, He must have someone who goes beyond the status quo of what we call normal Christianity. If He truly was crying out in the garden to be released from His Cup of human limitations, is it possible He is still crying out to be released In US in that exact same way!
If we willingly give up our lives, if we begin to see the POWER that lives in us in our weakness, and if we say with Isaiah, “here I am send me”, than we will see Him as we have never seen Him before.
Let me close with something that happened to me this past week.
I was introduced to a phenomenal business in January, and was so excited about implementing it into my existing business platform. But at the same time God has been requiring of me a deeper faith and trust in him as my Life! In all of His willing and doing over the past three months, He rolled in death on that business! I had no desire for it, and in fact even commented to my business partner and brother in Christ, “I am dead to this business.” And I was.
The night I made that comment I went to a business meeting and while there I received a text message. To make a long story short, it was a call I had been waiting on for weeks, and as it turns out, it could end up being the biggest deal of my career! I did nothing, I had no emotional investment, I completely died to it………..SO THAT……….The UNLIMITED GOD could breathe His New Life into it and resurrect it for His own Glory! And to prove to me once again, the power in RELEASING THE LIMITATIONS!
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "WHOM SHALL I SEND (into this unlimited land)? AND WHO WILL GO FOR US?"
Today at 21:57
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, "Because I bore him with pain."
Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed and ENLARGE MY BORDER, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!" And God granted him what he requested. (I Chronicles 4:9-10)
Bruce Wilkinson made this passage in I Chronicles popular a few years ago with his best selling book, Jabez. In the book he pointed out how this man Jabez asked God for three things. He then takes us through the details which resulted in God granting Jabez what He requested of Him.
God has been speaking to me lately about the natural “bent” I have in limiting Him. I don’t want to, but I do it anyway! And I don’t think I am alone either.
“And going a little farther, He threw Himself upon the ground on His face and prayed saying, “My Father, if it is possible, LET THIS CUP PASS AWAY from Me; nevertheless, not what I will [not what I desire], but as You will and desire.” (Mathew 26:39 AMP)
These two passages are very similar because, in each instance, the request is being made to see the UNLIMITED GOD EXPAND their borders, and move beyond the limitations of what they could both see!
In the case of Jabez, whose name means “sorrowful.” How would you like to go through life with a name like Sorrowful? No thank you. In a teaching I heard by Chuck Swindoll in the late 80’s, he expounded on the meaning of Jabez. He said Jabez meant “born with pain”, which is different than “born in pain.” With pain has to do with the circumstances he was born into, while “in pain” would seem to be more of an indication of what was happening during the actual birth of Jabez, such as the pain his mother endured during childbirth.
Based on the boldness of his prayer, and the ensuing result, I think we have to assume the first line of thought was true! Jabez was indeed thrust into a life of painful circumstances! Not only did he experience “pain” at a young age, but we also have to believe painful circumstances were a regular part of his life, especially for him to be at the maturity level he was in having not only prayed, but had awswered, that powerful prayer! And in examining his prayer, the one thing that “reaches in and grabs me”, was his desire to see God expand his borders (limitations).
“Oh that you would bless me, not just bless me, but bless me INDEED! That you would keep me from ALL evil! That you would expand the borders (of all of my earthly limitations)!”
In the Garden of Gesthemane, Jesus prayed in the same way! “If it is possible, let this CUP (of limitations) PASS AWAY! (Mathew 26:39)
Father, let me be as you are, without borders or limits………..SO THAT………they (us) can ALL be filled to the fullness as well, and our John 17 prayer can be fulfilled! Let me be as I have been since the beginning, with you Father, in the UNLIMITED EXPANSE OF THE UNLIMITED UNIVERSE!
“Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” (John 17:5)
“THAT ALL OF THEM MAY BE ONE, Father, JUST AS (present tense) YOU ARE IN ME and I AM IN YOU. MAY THEY ALSO BE IN US……SO THAT……..the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21)
“AS HE IS (without limitations), SO ARE WE (without limitations) IN THIS WORLD! (I John 4:17)
I am convinced God is grieved by our unwillingness, or perhapswe could even call it ignorance or indifference, of seeing Him as the UNLIMITED ONE! We have the entire expanse of the universe at our disposal IN US, and yet many of us haven’t moved beyond Christianity 101, Jesus FOR ME! God is the EVER EXPANDING God, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way! You don’t put NEW WINE (The Unlimited Revelation of Christ in US) into old wine skins (the life bound by earthly limitations). New Wine is EVER EXPANDING, and the old wine skins (still steeped in the elementary school of God) have to burst! There has to be an EVER EXPANDING Christ in Us because He is the God of No limitations!
In the garden Jesus sweat great drops of blood!
“Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his SWEAT WAS AS IT WERE, GREAT DROPS OF BLOOD!” (Luke 22:42-44)
Let’s look closely at this series of events. He had just come from being with HIS disciples in the upper room where He also just finished initiating the NEW COVENANT IN HIS BLOOD! And now we see Him in the Garden of Gethsemane asking His Father to “let this Cup Pass Away?"
We have been taught this passage is in reference to the cup of suffering he was about to endure through the cross, and I am not disputing that at all! But is it also possible there was a dual purpose in His Gethsemane experience? Is it possible that in this passage He is asking the Father to remove (pass away) HIS CUP of Earthly LIMITATIONS? After having been clothed in flesh for 33 years, is it possible He is longing to shed the limitations (The Cup) of being human? Is it possible the great drops of blood he shed were a picture of the parable of the New WINE (The New Covenant IN HIS BLOOD) bursting forth from the OLD Wineskin of His flesh? Could the reference to “THIS CUP” be a reference to Himself as being THE CONTAINER of His Father? Could this experience in the garden be the result of His Covenant prayer to His Father in John 17?
Why would He be longing for this shedding of HIS CUP, and what’s more, why was HIS SOUL be grieved to the point of death?
There can only be ONE ANSWER!
It was ALL FOR US! It was His prayer that our ONENESS with Him and His Father would vex (Him) His soul to the point of knowing as long as He was clothed in Flesh, the Spirit was LIMITED in the scope of His work!
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; IT IS EXPEDIENT FOR YOU THAT I GO AWAY: for IF I NOT GO AWAY, the COMFORTER WILL NOT COME UNTO YOU; BUT IF I DEPART, I WILL SEND HIM UNTO YOU. And when HE IS COME, He will reprove the world of sin (separation), and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin (separation), because they BELIEVE NOT ON ME; Of righteousness, BECAUSE I GO TO MY FATHER, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world IS JUDGED. I have yet many things to say unto you, but YE CANNOT BEAR THEM NOW. Howbeit when HE, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, IS COME, HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH: for HE SHALL NOT SPEAK OF HIMSELF; BUT……..WHATSOEVER HE SHALL HEAR, THAT SHALL HE SPEAK: and HE WILL SHOW YOU THINGS TO COME. HE SHALL GLORIFY ME: FOR HE SHALL RECEIVE OF MINE, AND SHALL SHOW IT UNTO YOU. ALL THINGS that the Father hath ARE MINE: therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. (Luke 16:7-15)
"All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained." (Philippians 3:15-16)
Do you see the urgency in this passage in LUKE, because He knew the ONLY way “we could see as He sees” is to be filled with the Same Spirit, The UNLIMITED SPIRIT OF POWER, the SPIRIT that raised Christ from the DEAD!
God is Grieved in His heart when His Unlimited Spirit is limited by us not seeing as He does. He is grieved because He knows that the Unlimited Life we all desire is only obtained by seeing God in ALL things, people, places, circumstances, situations, attitudes, etc. It is agreeing with Him as seeing our old wineskins of human limitations as Passing Away!
“Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and LIMITED THE HOLY ONE of ISRAEL. They remembered NOT HIS HAND, NOR THE DAY when He delivered them from the enemy.” (Psalm 78:41-42)
“But my righteous ONE shall live by faith, AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.” (Hebrews 10:38)
The Spirit is the Ultimate DOER, THE WORKER, THE ONE who brings substance to the Spoken Word! When we hold onto the things of this life He is limited in the willing and doing of His good pleasure IN US!
Suffering is the vehicle God uses to bring us beyond ourselves! Painful circumstances are meant to cause us to look to Him as the God of The Impossible! To live is Christ, and to die is gain! Death is God’s chosen method of bringing TRUE LIFE! But what is death from God’s perspective? Death is nothing more than believing the illusion that we can be separated from God!
“I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; IT NEVER BECOMES MORE but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces MANY OTHERS and yields a rich harvest.” (John 12:24 AMP)
God will roll in death on everything we continue to hold onto and call life! DEATH MUST HAVE IT’S FULL WORK IN US……so that….we can move beyond the earthly limitations that keep us grounded in fear, and like Jabez, see God as a God without borders or limitations……IN US!
The reason everything concerning us has to die is the same reason Christ died, FOR OTHERS! All of Life comes out of death, and we can have death come to us in its many forms and expressions, but its one purpose is always the same, to cause us to see HIS UNLIMITED LIFE IN US IS ALWAYS FOR OTHERS!
In 1983, a dear brother in Christ prescribed a prayer for me. He said to me Rich, if you want EVERYTHING God has for you in this life, than pray this prayer; “Lord, bring me to the end of myself, and give me a revelation of WHO I AM IN CHRIST, and WHO CHRIST IS IN ME!” I prayed that prayer for three years, God answered it for the next 20! And no matter what the trial or how hard the circumstance, I would continue to pray. I prayed it until my wife and kids hated it, because they lived in the answer of it every day! And why am I saying this. What does this have to do with RELEASING THE LIMITATIONS? In order for us to walk in that place of seeing HIM as the Unlimited God, God will ask every one us for one thing and only one thing…………EVERY-THING!
“And I sought a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the Land (of no limitations), that I should not destroy it, BUT I HAVE FOUND NONE. Therefore have I poured out My indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; THEIR OWN WAY HAVE I REPAID [by bringing it] UPON THEIR OWN HEADS, SAYS THE LORD GOD.” (Ezekiel 22;30)
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "WHOM SHALL I SEND (into this unlimited land)? AND WHO WILL GO FOR US?"
AND I SAID, HERE I AM SEND ME!”
He said, "Go and tell this people: " 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." (Isaiah 6:8-10)
God MUST have someone that sees as He sees, He must have someone who goes beyond the status quo of what we call normal Christianity. If He truly was crying out in the garden to be released from His Cup of human limitations, is it possible He is still crying out to be released In US in that exact same way!
If we willingly give up our lives, if we begin to see the POWER that lives in us in our weakness, and if we say with Isaiah, “here I am send me”, than we will see Him as we have never seen Him before.
Let me close with something that happened to me this past week.
I was introduced to a phenomenal business in January, and was so excited about implementing it into my existing business platform. But at the same time God has been requiring of me a deeper faith and trust in him as my Life! In all of His willing and doing over the past three months, He rolled in death on that business! I had no desire for it, and in fact even commented to my business partner and brother in Christ, “I am dead to this business.” And I was.
The night I made that comment I went to a business meeting and while there I received a text message. To make a long story short, it was a call I had been waiting on for weeks, and as it turns out, it could end up being the biggest deal of my career! I did nothing, I had no emotional investment, I completely died to it………..SO THAT……….The UNLIMITED GOD could breathe His New Life into it and resurrect it for His own Glory! And to prove to me once again, the power in RELEASING THE LIMITATIONS!
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "WHOM SHALL I SEND (into this unlimited land)? AND WHO WILL GO FOR US?"
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